If you are updating the xml files correctly in the server, there is no reason to republish the swf and there is no reason to post a fla file to the server. I would check to see if the provider uses a staging or development server as it may take time for updating a file to the production server compared to adding new files. If that is the case I would store the data in sql and do a virtual xml dump into your swf instead of pulling from a hard digital file.